Praveen is a growth and business leader with over 24 years of experience in payments, cards, and banking technology. As the Head of Verinite's North America Business Unit, Praveen is responsible for driving the company's strategic growth across the United States and Canada. He leads market expansion, client acquisition, account development and regional business strategy, while strengthening Verinite's presence and partnerships within the North American financial services and payments ecosystem.
Formative years
Praveen hails from Kannur, Kerala, India. Having spent many years in Pune, he considers the city his second home. He completed his MBA from IESE Business School.
Career journey
Praveen began his professional career hands-on with card and payment platforms, building deep technical grounding in the systems that process the world's card transactions. Over the years, he progressed through a wide spectrum of roles—technology delivery, client management, presales, sales leadership, and business unit management—at financial services technology firms serving Tier 1 banks, processors, and fintechs across North America, Europe, and Asia.
His career culminated in serving as President & CEO of a global payments technology firm with 600+ professionals, where he owned the full P&L — clients, delivery, people, and growth strategy. Along the way, he has led some of the industry's most demanding programs: card platform migrations, large-scale quality engineering, scheme and regulatory compliance initiatives, payments modernization, and data, analytics, and AI initiatives for financial institutions.
To complement his domain depth, Praveen has completed executive programs at Wharton, INSEAD, and IIM, along with the Columbia Business School CEO Program.
Getting into leadership
Praveen grew into leadership in the most unforgiving corner of technology — payments, where systems can't go down, migrations can't slip, and compliance deadlines don't move. Leading teams through programs with no margin for error taught him that leadership isn't about direction from a distance; it's about standing accountable next to the client when the stakes are highest.
Known for combining strategic thinking with hands-on domain expertise, Praveen brings a blend of business acumen, deep cards and payments knowledge, and execution discipline that helps financial institutions navigate change with confidence.
Personal insight
Outside of work, Praveen is an avid sports enthusiast — a regular at the gym and on the squash court. A people person at heart, he loves to travel, meet new people, and learn from their stories.
